Framed Marimekko tea towel.

November 15th, 2007 | Category: house, inspiration

Oh, a little detail from my kitchen that I meant to make note of…! I really love Jenni Tuominen’s “Unessa” print for Marimekko and wanted to frame it for my kitchen, but because the repeat is so humongous (81″!!), I decided to buy the tea towel instead. Marimekko’s tea towels are large (18.5 x 27.5″), beautifully silkscreened, and 100% linen. Perfect for framing!

I machine-stiched black grosgrain ribbon around the edges to make a nice border (I miter-folded a single length of ribbon as I sewed to ensure good corners), and popped the whole thing into a 19.75 x 27.5″ RIBBA frame from IKEA. Done!

15 Comments so far

  1. lena November 15th, 2007 11:25 am

    gawd you’re good.

  2. Jennifer November 15th, 2007 12:18 pm

    VERY nice. I would never have thought of framing a tea towel… and it looks SO NICE!

  3. Carolina November 15th, 2007 12:28 pm

    Great idea! I really like the ribbon border. Your house looks fantastic.

  4. Jessica November 15th, 2007 12:31 pm

    ooo - stunning I love the colors and the detail…this print is overwhelming.

  5. kat November 15th, 2007 1:01 pm

    What’s miter-folding??

    Oh man…is their anything you can’t do? I love grosgrain ribbon, btw!

  6. zee November 15th, 2007 1:11 pm

    Framing teatowels is where it’s at, yo!

  7. Anna at D16 November 15th, 2007 1:15 pm

    Kat! I can’t knit, I can’t draw (at least not anymore, after sitting in front of a computer for 10 years), I can’t sing, I can’t DRIVE… I pretty useless, really, unless you need some mitered ribbon corners or a pot of vegetarian chili. Then I’m your girl. :)

    To miter a ribbon (or any kind of fabric binding) at the corner, you first fold it back and straight (making a 45° fold on the back), press it, then fold it back down and over itself and press again. That way you wind up with a crisp 90° corner and no excess fabric to trim away. To avoid having to actually use a measuring tape, I did this while the whole thing was IN the sewing machine — I just used my flatiron (for my hair!) to press the ribbon when I got to the corner.

  8. Adam November 15th, 2007 1:21 pm

    I would never have thought of doing that! There are lots of designs on textiles that I like, now I won’t be afeaid to buy some and frame it.

  9. nathalie November 15th, 2007 1:49 pm

    looks great ..well done !

  10. holly November 15th, 2007 2:32 pm

    I had been drooling over the season prints, and there is a tea towel of one of them!
    http://www.shoprelish.com/Store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=0&idproduct=681
    Thanks so much for leading me to it!

  11. minhus November 15th, 2007 10:22 pm

    I love Marimekko. I’ve been imagining Marimekko fabric art on my wall for awhile, but have problems picking a print.

    Great idea on framing a tea towel too. Might have to borrow that one.

  12. Elisabeth November 16th, 2007 1:33 pm

    Just great, I have to buy that towel too.

  13. Chad November 16th, 2007 4:01 pm

    Looks great! Thanks for sharing.

  14. Katja November 21st, 2007 10:20 am

    What a great idea! I love that print from Marimekko.

  15. Raina September 8th, 2008 10:43 pm

    You may want to check out this great house in my village:

    http://ifthelampshadefits.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-little-village-called-sumner.html

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